#harper strike

[shaelit]

February 21, 2023 - FINAL UPDATE

For a chronological timeline of the entire Harper strike, click here.

Today was the Harper Union’s first day back at their desks.

Collective action works.

The union tweeted out a full summation of their agreement with HarperCollins here, but the highlights are as follows:

Minimum wage increase, immediately to $47,500 with a ramp-up to $50,000 by 2025.

A $1,500 bonus for all union members, presumably to partially offset the costs of being left without a paycheck by their company since November

Guaranteed annual raises for all marked satisfactory or above

Union letter and membership card included in new-hire packets

Joint Labor/Management committee to meet monthly

Time on aforementioned committee and/or all company-sponsored DEI activities will be seen as and paid as work time (as opposed to the free labor junior employees were expected to contribute previously)

Juneteenth and Presidents’ Day added as permanent paid holidays (as opposed to, you know, a one-time publicity stunt a la June 2020)

Return-to-office not mandated for union employees until July 1 (currently, Harper expects employees to live and work in NYC)

The above are just the guaranteed, contractually mandated changes that will be implemented at Harper. This does not include the ripple effects that have already begun in the rest of the industry.

Collective action works.

[shaelit]

February 9, 2023

Almost three full months to the day since the Harper Union went on strike (full info here), and leadership has just announced that

they have reached a tentative agreement!

My understanding is that the collective bargaining unit of employees still have to vote on the agreement itself and that until that happens and the agreement moves from tentative to ratified, the strike is still on. Wait for more official news from the union leaders, but this is big, BIG news and would not have been possible without the support of those who sent money, wrote letters, and honored the picket line.

It will be fascinating to see what concessions beyond their initial, very banal demands the union was able to secure (if any) and, more broadly, how this will affect the industry at large. Since the strike began, two of Harper’s direct competitors have raised their minimum wages from $45k to $47.5k, so more changes may be on the horizon.

[shaelit]

January 26, 2023

For the full timeline and tons of information on the HarperCollins strike, here’s the long post.

It has been FIFTY-SIX days since the HarperCollins Union went on strike... and Harper has at last agreed to sitting down with an independent, mutually agreed upon mediator to at least discuss the Union’s demands.

What this means:

- The pressure is working. Brian Murray and the leadership at HarperCollins have spent the last fifty-six days lying, spinning, hiring scabs, and doing everything except speaking to their union employees. That they’re even willing to talk now means the steady pushback has made things uncomfortable.

Therefore: Keep writing to [email protected]! Keep supporting the strike fund! Keep buying your books through the union’s Bookshop page! And keep sharing the union’s posts online and in your in-person communities!

- The strike IS NOT OVER. No agreement has been reached. Do not post reviews of Harper titles, accept work for any of their imprints, submit manuscripts for consideration, or in any way cross that picket line.

Additionally: The union is holding two separate rallies for folks in New York. The first, on January 31, is for industry professionals. The second, on February 2, is outside the NewsCorp HQ and is for everyone. If you’re not in the metro area and can’t attend, I’m sure folks would appreciate online support. New York is cold and gross and wet right now.

This is not the time to ease up, but rather to push HarperCollins, News Corp, and Rupert Murdoch even harder to cede to the beyond reasonable demands of their employees and to put an end to this absolute farce that they initiated.

[shaelit]

HarperCollins Strike Update

For the full breakdown of what’s been going on since November, read here.

January 20, 2023

It’s been over FIFTY days. The strike is still ongoing. Harper has yet to even speak to the union.

Union members are still scraping on their second and third hustles (which most entry-level publishing people have) and donations to the strike fund. The union has set up a hardship fund (here’s the post about it on their official Instagram, for verification) so no more fiddling with checks or Venmo.

If you can donate, please do.

And whether you can or can’t, please do still share.